Beer: Ratings & Reviews

Huge thanks to dougofthefuture for sending this growler out my way. Served in a Town Hall cervoise, also courtesy of dougofthefuture.

Pours a nice golden color with a good white head with nice retention. A bit of sticky lacing on the way down. The nose carries some really nice fruits, with some gooseberry, kiwi, green grape, and a hint of melon. Love those New Zealand hops.

The flavor has all of the light-green fruits, but not with the same intensity and complexity. Still, quite good. A moderate amount of hop bitterness added in. Light-medium body with good carbonation and a fairly-dry finish. Quite good. Another winner from Town Hall.

Aromatics: wide open and empty. Not much beyond a faint cereal sweetness. Malty, and…eh. Not much else. Little hops.

Drinking it: A little heat up front, from the high alcohol, a bit of a burn, then it's all malt. Clean, and…not smooth, not with this much booze, but it is downable, consumable, for sure, if not for the premonition of a headache. I feel this is not too far away from a malt liquor. Very little actual flavor, beyond the small malt character, and the alcohol, which is becoming more and more prominent. Boom, boom, it's getting bigger, it's rounding out the brain cavity, searching for swinging room, and getting impatient. Boom, boom. Thud, thud. Pow. And while this banging happens around the brain cave, there's little extra pleasure to be had, unlike in a double pils, where you get some richer hop presence, no, this is strictly a lean, light lager, but high on the alcohol. (And I still don't know how high as I type this. Forgot to check. Or ask. They were busy, and I chose on a whim.)

It's getting a little sweeter in the malt flavor, and I'm trying to get down with that, use that as my pathway to pleasure. And ignore the pounding presence of the booze.

The beer is clear and orange hued with a half inch of lasting white head. The aroma brings some lager scents. Malty with a light dose of fruit. A bit sweet with some alcohol presence in the finish. Some dank hops are in there as well. Overall, this was ok. Worth a try.

On tap at Town Hall Tap. This beer arrives a clear bright gold color. The head is one inch of bright white foam that recedes slowly into a nice cap of lacing. The aroma is of passion fruit, spicy hops, grass, and toasty malt. The taste is similar to the aroma with the hops coming through first and the bready, toasty malt finishing things off. Bitterness is moderate. The mouthfeel is full bodied with an almost chewy texture, and lively carbonation. Overall, this is a really nice beer. I have never heard of the Motueka hop before, but I really like the way it was used in this beer. I really look forward to encountering it again in the future.

Pours a clear yellow color without much head. Nose is grainy hops mixed in with a fruity floral hopiness. Taste starts off with sweet, grainy malts. These fade to some sod fruit flavors that give way to a nice fruitiness. Nice combination between the lager flavors and the fruity Belgian yeast. Ends with a lingering grain finish. Nice, smooth body goes down well. I really enjoyed this beer. Something new and different and worked really well. I wish I saw more combinations like this in the beer world.

Penultimate night of the Barrel Aged Week and out comes the big dog Double IPA Barrel Monkey for a Friday night. Got there early, so had some time to burn before the monkey was released.

Started with a "double lager" named Motueka. I know nothing about this beer beyond the quoted style, but liked it a lot better than my anti-lager bias would predict. Stark white head lingers over a straw gold lager that has a light floral hop and bready light malt. The combination is delicate, but not weak. Sweet malt continues in the taste with significant and surprisingly assertive hop profile that is floral, slightly earthy and a bit peppery. Such a strong showing, that I took a growler home to continue the sampling. Growler is similar, except there's a momentary smokiness and the hops have more clarity.

I saw this in my local bottle house, 10% lager, I have to try this. Golden in color with a small cream head. The smell was very hoppy, so far so good. The mouth taste was both bitter and hoppy, but missing the taste you would find in a lager. It was like an IPA inside a lager? The malt was nonexistent but you would not find a lot of malt in a lager. There were some fruit flavors, bitter like like apricots and bananas. One good thing was with 10% there was no alcohol after flavors to be found.